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Taking Modern Warfare 2 Spec Ops Mode to the Movies

Anthony says: Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer impressed me when I played it last, and the single-player looks just as nice as I expected from developer Infinity Ward. But until recently I'd heard next to nothing about the new Special Operations (Spec Ops) mode. This week, however, the veil was lifted, and I was able to actually play through a couple of Spec ops missions.

Spec Ops is a cooperative mode that allows a pair of players (or, in some cases, a single person) to go through a series of missions that, according to Infinity Ward, rival the single-player game in length. The missions are split into five sections that are unlocked by earning stars, which are gained by playing the challenges on harder difficulties. The missions I played and watched during my demo were based around a couple of basic ideas: kill X amount of enemies or get from point A to B. The mode comes off as a distilled version of what makes the regular campaign so intense, tossing the player into brutal skirmishes that last somewhere between three to 10 minutes. It feature little to no story -- all the shooting with none of the pillow talk, if you will.

One mission, called "Breach and Clear," very clearly drew inspiration from the shower room battle from "The Rock," and left me wondering what other movies moments might make an awesome MW2 Spec Ops mission. Here are a few suggestions we hope either make it into Spec Ops proper or are modded in by the talents of the Internet.

Predator

Anthony says: Who doesn't want to feel like '80s Schwarzenegger for just a moment? Imagine playing a cooperative mission where you and your buddy try to lure a giant monster into a trap, or perhaps have to battle an ultra-hard enemy using the environment to tilt the fight in your favor. Spec Ops mode already features a new enemy called a Juggernaut -- a heavily armored enemy who takes a serious beating and just keeps coming -- who could easily be palette-swapped for a Predator, complete with sound files like "ugly mother f*cker." Heck, even if I don't get to battle a Predator, a Spec Ops mission based around battling a series of Juggernauts at once could easily stir up the same feelings or hopelessness and desperation that we all loved in "Predator" and "The Terminator."

Chances that killing a ton of guys in Spec Ops makes you this badass? Highly unlikely.

Die Hard

Will says: Setting a Spec Ops level in the Nakitomi building is a no-brainer, as Bruce Willis' 1989 action flick defined the term "terrorist hunt" years before it rose to gaming prominence in Rainbow Six. Tasked with clearing the upper floors of suave German terrorists, you could move around the cubicles, boardrooms, and construction areas via air ducts, or rappel down the side of the building with a fire hose when the going gets too tough. Enemies can set traps for you, shooting glass office windows to injure you when you walk across it, as well as take hostages that you'll need to keep alive if you want to keep playing. Yippie kay-ay motherf*cker, indeed.

Officer McClane, did we catch a "niner" in there?

Black Hawk Down

Anthony says: While the last Modern Warfare game featured a scene in which you save a downed helicopter pilot and carry him to safety, other moments from this film could make exceptional multiplayer levels, too. Toward the end of the movie, several U.S. soldiers are forced to run all the way back to a safe zone occupied by friendly forces, all while avoiding prolonged firefights that would leave them overwhelmed. Since the focus of Spec Ops is providing the player with a short, intense cooperative experience, it could be especially exciting to force the players to keep moving rather than simply finding a good area to bunker down and kill all the enemies before proceeding. Moreover the experience could focus on the cooperative aspect by making it so the only way players could cut a swathe through enemies and proceed is by taking turns moving and covering for one another. Not only would you get the quality shooting experience that Infinity Ward is known for, you'd also get to play a Call of Duty game in such a way that it forces you to be a team player and not a one-man army of doom.

At least your partner can crawl when they go down in Spec Ops.

Heat

Will says: There's one scene that comes to everyone's mind when someone mentions Michael Mann's cops-and-robbers thriller, and that's the post-bank heist shootout on the streets of LA. You and your partner (Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer skins optional) would be tasked with shooting your way out of the bank and down a car-lined street, taking out any and all cops that stand in your way. Assault rifles would have to be the weapon of choice here, their range and firepower perfectly suited for mid-range urban combat. I mean, have you seen how well one of those things shreds a cop car?

Not from the bank shootout, but uber-badass nonetheless.

Lethal Weapon

Anthony says: While it isn't military in its setting, and will likely be something left for modders, I can't emphasize enough how silly and entertaining it could be to play as Sergeant Riggs and Murtaugh. Not only could some awesome skins be used to bring back Mel Gibson's mullet in all its glory, but it'd be pretty fun to engage in some MW2-driven "pistols only" battles. The wonderful lighting and particle effects could do a number as you blasted your way through coke labs, and the new emphasis in some of the Spec Ops missions to avoid killing civilians (killing six ended one of the missions I watched) could be used to increase the difficulty. After all, don't all people from the '80s kind of look alike?

Spec Ops looks great and runs as smooth as MW2 single player, but it doesn't look as good as that haircut.

Cliffhanger

Will says: Sly Stallone's high-altitude action flick is one of the underappreciated gems of the 1990s. We already know Modern Warfare 2 features some ice-climbing action, but imagine a sequence in which you've got to hold on to your climbing axe for dear life while bullets shatter the ice around you, or one in which you've got to hold onto your partner as they dangle precariously from a wire. You could even use the environment to gain the upper hand, triggering avalanches with a single well-placed shot or making deadly icicles impale unsuspecting foes.

Moments later, Janine Turner's career fell to its death.

We sincerely doubt any of our far-fetched ideas for Spec Ops missions will make it into the final product, but it was all but confirmed to me that DLC Spec Ops missions are in the works for the future. And heck, even if Infinity Ward fails us, we can always fall back on the insane PC modders out there responsible for things like this. Have your own suggestions about what would make an awesome Spec Ops mission? Tell us all about it in the comments.